In 2012, the Aztecs ran their way to a share of the Mountain West championship.

Adam Muema rushed for 1,458 yards and 16 touchdowns and Walter Kazee piled on another 822 yards and eight scores as the nation’s 20th ranked rushing offense pounded its way to a nine-win season.

But even as cries of “Win 20” – the Aztecs are gunning for their 20th conference championship – resonate off the practice field, the road to a repeat will look a little different in 2013.

Bob Toledo is the offensive coordinator now, and he’s brought his innovative West Coast passing scheme to the Mesa.

Adam Dingwell is the guy charged with making it tick.

The junior quarterback had some poignant moments and some forgettable ones in his five starts for the Aztecs in 2012.

Good memory: Dingwell leading SDSU to thrilling come-from-behind wins at Nevada and Boise State.

Bad memory: His three-interception performance in the Aztecs’ Poinsettia Bowl defeat to BYU.

This season, Dingwell wants to take his game to the next level.

It all starts with the fundamentals, but it takes much more than that to properly conduct the Toledo offense.

First, Dingwell needs to improve on his accuracy.

Dingwell completed only 57.6 percent of this passes in 2012, finishing 83-of-144 for 939 yards, with seven interceptions and eight touchdowns.

Toledo wants him to shoot for a completion percentage of 67 percent this season.

The quarterback thinks he’s up to the challenge, and he’s worked on his mechanics this offseason.

“One of the things he has to do is lengthen his stride a little bit because he doesn’t stride with his left foot, and he’s got to offset his left foot a little bit so he’s not throwing across his body,” Toledo said. “We worked hard with him to get those fundamentals better and I think he’s getting better.”

That small change has already made a difference, it seems.

“His feet have gotten a lot better from these past couple of seasons,” said senior receiver Colin Lockett, who caught three passes from Dingwell for 170 yards in the fall scrimmage. “With his toes pointed in the right direction, he’s going to be able to put it high, put it low or even put it away from the defender.”

Toledo’s offense involves more elaborate passing schemes, but the new offensive coordinator also believes in training his quarterbacks to be part of the decision making process.

So this year, when Dingwell walks up to the line of scrimmage, he has complete control.

“As a quarterback in this offense, I have the liberty to call any play I want, which is one thing I’m really excited about,” Dingwell said.

It’s a change from Andy Ludwig’s system the year before, when the quarterbacks could call audibles but didn’t have full autonomy over the plays.

“It was a little more scripted. Maybe one or two plays were called in the huddle, and we could change it at the line of scrimmage,” Dingwell said. “But this year, it’s a lot more liberty.”

Dingwell takes pride in the fact that his coach wants his input on the game plan, and trusts him enough to allow him to change plays based on what he identifies at the line of scrimmage.

“It’s really exciting knowing that your coach has that much confidence in you so you can go out there and just let everything free and play football,” Dingwell said.

But with autonomy comes greater responsibility.

To be able to call a play that will work, the quarterback has to have an intricate understanding of how to read defenses.

So Dingwell has taken it upon himself to watch as much film as he can.

“I think it’s helped me become a better quarterback so far, even just going against our defense,” Dingwell said. “They give us a bunch of different looks and you have to get in the film room and notice what they’re trying to do and predict where they end up so you can give the offense the best play.

“The way I see it, you can never watch enough film on your opponents.”

Dingwell has put in the work. Now the question is whether he can pull it all together on the field.